Texas Tech football: New OC David Yost will keep the offense rolling
The Texas Tech football team’s new offensive coordinator David Yost arrives as one of the most respected offensive minds in the game and will help the Red Raiders maintain their offensive identity.
One of the most unique characters in all of college football has found his way to Lubbock. New offensive coordinator David Yost, known for both his brilliant offensive mind as well as his signature shaggy blond hair, is now the man Texas Tech football fans are trusting to help ensure that the Red Raiders maintain their offensive identity.
An entire generation of Red Raiders have grown up knowing only one certainty to be true in the world of college football, Texas Tech will score points. But when Kliff Kingsbury was fired, many wondered if Kirby Hocutt would take the program in a different direction by hiring a more defensive minded head coach after Tech has unsuccessfully tried for almost a decade to pass its way to wins while attempting to cover for inept defenses.
Tech fans will be relieved to know that new head coach Matt Wells is bringing with him one of the most innovative offensive minds in the nation to guide the Texas Tech offense and ensure that Red Raider football fans will continue to be able to use one of Lubbock’s favorite phrases; “We score a lot.”
A finalist for the 2018 Broyles Award given to the top assistant coach in the nation, Yost has some serious skins on the wall. While spending 17 years coaching under one of the games most highly-respected head coaches, Gary Pinkel, at both Toledo and Missouri. Yost helped develop three of the best quarterbacks to ever play at the University of Missouri; Chase Daniel, Blaine Gabbert and Brad Smith cementing his standing as a top QB developer, which Texas Tech certainly can appreciate.
After leaving Missouri in 2012, he spent three seasons at Washington State coaching inside receivers for Mike Leach. In 2016, he was the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oregon where he helped groom 2018 Heisman Trophy candidate and expected first round NFL Draft pick Justin Herbert.
Under Yost, Herbert passed for 1936 yards and 19 touchdowns while running for 161 yards and two more scores in eight games as a true freshman. Now Yost will have an opportunity to work with another young star quarterback in sophomore Alan Bowman.
The 2019 Texas Tech offense could return all but one of its starting running backs and receivers from 2018 when it scored 37.3 points per game despite having to start thee different quarterbacks. But that does not come close to what Yost’s offense did this year.
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The Aggies finished the regular season ranked third in the nation in points per game with 47.2 trailing only Oklahoma and Alabama. Their offense was incredibly balanced running the ball 440 times for 2,444 yards and 34 touchdowns while throwing the ball 422 times for 3,466 yards and 28 touchdowns.
And Utah State utilized a ton of weapons. Two running backs ran for at least 785 yards and seven players had more than 200 yards receiving. And to many Red Raider fans, what you will see out of a David Yost offense will look incredibly familiar.
Running the up-tempo offense that Texas Tech fans have become accustomed to, Yost wants to attack opposing defenses vertically to set up underneath routes and the running game. That will be a perfect fit for an offense featuring two big-play receivers in Antione Wesley and T.J. Vasher, both of whom are at least 6-foot-4.
This season, Utah State’s 44 passing plays of at least 20 yards is good for 40th in the nation, which is only 11 fewer than the Red Raiders posted. Meanwhile, the Aggies’ 67 rushes of 10 yards or more was 56th in the nation and eleven more than Tech amassed. What is most encouraging is that Utah State averaged 5.6 yards per carry, which was significantly better than Texas Tech’s average of 3.6.
Matt Wells by the numbers. dark. Next
There may be some noticeable differences in the Texas Tech offense next year just like there will be noticeable differences in the man that is calling the plays. But what we can expect to remain the same is that Texas Tech will still be able to put plenty of points on the scoreboard under David Yost.